Borders beaten, but Kidney admits ‘we rode our luck’
In the end, they will thank a dogged defence and, perhaps, Mick O’Driscoll, who plucked the ball out of the sky on a Border Reivers line outthrow in the dying seconds.
It was the last throw of the dice for the plucky visitors, and when substitute Jeremy Manning cleared to touch, the Welsh referee Tim Hayes called an end to a rather fretful evening for Munster.
It was a bad game and a very poor performance from last year’s runners-up against the bottom club.
Munster will have to improve significantly to mount a serious challenge. All eyes were on David Wallace, making his first start on the right wing, and he impressed in the early stages before being denied any semblance of regular possession.
Munster coach Declan Kidney recognised Munster had lived on the danger line: “We rode our luck a bit at times, but I think we must recognise that this was the first outing for a lot of the team. We looked to inject a bit more pace in the game but it wasn’t that kind of a match and, I suppose, we suffered a bit.”
As for playing Wallace on the wing, Kidney insisted it was an option for the future. “He is a flanker, and we recognise him as such. He appeared on the wing to-night for the benefit of the team and we will take due recognition of that sacrifice. But he didn’t play badly at all, carried the ball well and I was happy with his performance.”
As for the team as a whole, Kidney admitted there would have to be a huge improvement when they meet the Ospreys, the team that beat them into second place last year, in Cork next Saturday.
Last night, Munster won the toss and elected to play against the breeze. That proved to be a good decision as both sides slugged it out in the opening quarter. The visitors came closest to scoring, when winger Simon Danielli caught a cross kick from Gregor Townsend but lost control near the line.
Charlie Hore missed a simple penalty after 21 minutes and then Chris Cusiter had a scoring chance denied by the alert John Kelly. Border Reivers held territorial sway but it was a pretty pathetic first half, until Townsend livened up the proceedings with a 34th minute try.
Townsend attacked the Munster defence and charged through both Marcus Horan and Federico Pucciariello for a try under the posts. Hore converted.
But Munster’s O’Driscoll won the re-start, was taken out, and Paul Burke kicked the resultant penalty.
From there to the end of the half, it was all Munster. The Borders conceded penalty after penalty, and Munster drove forward in search of the try. That proved elusive, but at least it enlivened the crowd of some 5,000, and brought the atmosphere into the game that these passionate supporters are used to.
Paul Burke struck quickly for Munster in the second half when he knocked over a 45 metres penalty; the result of an astonishing attack on the Border’s own put in at a scrum. The visitors buckled under the strain of the shove and Burke yielded the reward.
But it didn’t get any better quickly; mostly because Munster were starved of possession at line-out time, even losing one of their own throws in the opening ten minutes.
Then, under pressure, they conceded a penalty that Hore, happily from Munster’s point of view, missed from point blank range.
Munster missed a penalty through Burke a couple of minutes later before Manning, a replacement for Burke, put the home side into the lead with his first touch of the ball. His second kick was a monster out of defence to pile the pressure back on the Borders.
Seconds after being named Man of the Match, Denis Leamy nearly made it through for a try after a blistering run off a pass from Manning. He was held up five metres from the line and might have scored had he not changed direction at the last moment.
But Munster had to live on their wits afterwards, and they barely made it past Borders.
: S. Payne, D. Wallace, T. Halstead, R. Henderson, J. Kelly, P. Burke, P. Stringer, M. Horan, J. Flannery, F. Pucciariello, T. Hogan, M. O’Driscoll, S. Keogh, A. Foley (captain), D. Leamy.
: A. Quinlan for Keogh, F. Sheahan for Flannery (both 50), J. Manning for Burke (63).
: S. Moffat, S. Danielli, B. MacDougall, C. Hore, G. Law, G. Townsend, C. Cusiter, P. Thompson (captain), R. Ford, B. Douglas, O. Palepoi, C. Stewart, S. Gray, K. Brown, W. McEntee.
: A. Miller for McEntee (55), J. Dalziel for Gray (61), S. Scott for Ford, T. McGee for Thompson (both 70), A. Rennick for Stewart (74).
: T. Hayes (Wales).
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